How to sell your online course

There are multiple methods you can use in order to sell your online course (more often).

It’s basically the same as in other businesses or other webshops. There are numerous ways to do it.

We are going to share our five favourite ways to get more sales on your online course.

Our five favourite ways to sell more courses

So, this list is basically the short version. Do you want more information? Then keep reading!

I’ll go into more specifics down below!

1. Give free information

This works like a charm. Why? Because people love to get things for free.

It makes sure that they get a taste of what you have to offer.

You might ask: “How does giving free information help me get more sales?”. That’s a valid question.

The answer is actually quite straightforward. This is still a give-and-take kind of world.

So giving to your audience can push them into giving you something in the future.

They’ll remember the time you gave them free lessons in whatever you teach.

Whenever they feel like they want to learn more, they’ll turn to you, and not the competitor.

It’s all about leaving a mark and being the expert they want to listen to.

It is key, however, that whatever you offer is of high quality.

2. Spend more time on good copy

Your course can be of very high quality. However, if nobody buys it, nobody else will ever know.

Writing better copy on all the relevant pages and call-to-actions can help you sell more. It is, in fact, the number one way to do it.

Not only will potential students feel more compelled to follow your course, if you do it right, your course will also become more visible in Google (for instance).

The pieces of text that deserve the most attention are:

• Course description.
• H1-title, meta-title and meta-description.
• Copy and button text on your payment page.
• Buttons and body text on your sales page.
• Text in the e-mails you send customers.

Always make sure to use one kind of copy on a specific page. Mixed kinds of copy can make a page less compelling.

For instance, keep the description of the course informational and save the call-to-actions for your buttons.

3. Be specific in what you offer customers

Not being specific about what you offer can be the first trigger for customers to leave.

So, where you can, be specific about what they’ll learn.

Do you have a course that’s about a specific part of Photoshop? Be sure to highlight this on your pages.

This will ensure only the right customers are triggered to buy your course.

It will also mean less people will be disappointed afterwards. More happy customers and more positive reviews.

Of course you want as little people to ask for a refund as possible, being specific helps in that sense too.

4. Identify your target audience and focus on it

Having a focus within your course is very good start to targeting the correct audience.

It can however be the case that your course is very big and doesn’t have one clear subject.

This grants you the opportunity to target a specific target audience.

For instance, your course might be a little more suitable for designers than for plumbers. In that case, try and target specifically the group of designers.

You can do this by targeting a specific audience within advertising (like Google Ads and Facebook).

It’s also to do this by adding very specific words to your titles and text. For instance, use: “… for designers.”

You’ll get titles like: “Photoshop Course for Designers” or “How to do Marketing for Designers”. This creates a niche and the people in your niche will be more inclined to start!

5. Know that some customers are in it for the long run.

Not every potential customer will want to buy on the first sight of your course.

Even after finishing your first free content, they might want to wait.

Having a good followup is crucial in order to get more out of your course.

A good followup consists of retrieving an email address (you can get this when they sign up for a freebie or newsletter) and sending an email on a regular basis.

Start a newsletter with trends and developments in your field, in order to keep giving them valuable information.

All you need to do is let them know that the course still exists and they will enjoy it.

Especially when you keep taking away reasons not to start or by giving a very good reason to start (discount) they’ll eventually find themselves in your online course.

Start with selling your course

These tips are of course mainly focused on people whom already have a course (or multiple).

However, these tips are also very useful for people starting out.

Are you thinking about creating a course or are you looking to build your own course platform? Look around on our website!

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